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Hon . Amo s Tuce. M. 



SKETCH 



LIFE AND CHARACTER 



HON. AMOS TUCK 



Read before the Maine Historical Society, 
December, 1888, 






r 

J. W. DEARBORN, M. D. 



PARSONSFIELD, MAINE. 






PRINTED BY B. THURSTON & CO., PORTAND, ME. 



The Life and Character 



HON. AMOS TUCK. 



In this brief monograph it is not proposed to 
present much that is new relative to the career of 
this noble man, but rather to collect, collate and 
put in form for preservation, the statements which 
have from time to time appeared, outlining in some 
degree the purity of life and nobility of character 
of one of the many worthy sons of grand old Par- 
sonsfield, Amos Tuck. 

This is a delicate task, as he was to me an entire 
stranger, and therefore upon others I am obliged to 
depend for information and necessary data; there 
exists also a keen sense of my inability to do ample 
justice to the subject of this sketch. Again it be- 
comes a delightful privilege to present this tribute 



4 LIFE AND CHARACTER 

to one whose birth was in my native town, and 
whose ancestors were immigrants thither from the 
same neighborhood with my own. 

Robert Tuck was the progenitor of all the fam- 
ilies of that name in New England. Two hun- 
dred and fifty years ago he emigrated from England 
and settled in Winnacunnet, now Hampton, N. H. 
The land granted him by the town continued in 
his possession and that of his male descendants 
one hundred and sixty years, and during five gen- 
erations. He died in 1664, surviving his son Ed- 
ward, who came from England with him, twelve 
years, and leaving the homestead to John, son of 
said Edward, who was deacon of the Congregational 
church, and who died in 1742, aged ninety years. 
After him his son Jonathan, also deacon, of the 
fourth generation, occupied, dying in 1781, ao-ed 
eighty-three years. His son Jonathan, of the 
fifth generation lived and here died in 1780, aged 
forty-four years. His son John with his wife 
and their two oldest children came to Parsons- 
field in 1807, where his brothers Josiah and 
Samuel had already settled. Amos, the son 



OF HON. AMOS TUCK. 5 

of John and subject of this memoir, was born 
in Parsonsfield, Aug. 2, 18 10. On his father's 
farm in the extreme southwestern portion of the 
town, and bordering on Province Lake, was passed 
his early life, inured to toil and hardship. It has 
been very truthfully said, that " It is not in great 
cities, nor in confined shops of trade, but principally 
in agriculture that the best stock or staple of men 
is grown." 

At seventeen he commenced study at Effingham, 
[N. H.] academy, preparatory to entering college. 
There and at Hamptqn, he continued his studies, 
teaching a portion of the time until four years 
later, in 1831, he entered Dartmouth College, and 
graduated in 1835. He then commenced teaching 
at Pembroke academy, but soon left to go to the 
home of his fathers and take charge of Hampton 
academy. In 1838 he entered the law office of 
Hon. James Bell as student, removed to Exeter, 
was admitted to the bar in the autumn of the same 
year, and a few months later became the law partner 
of Mr. Bell, then at the head of his profession in 
the State, and afterward United States Senator. 



6 LIFE AND CHARACTER 

This connection continued for over eight years, and 
the firm enjoyed a very large practice. 

In 1842 Mr. Tuck was chosen Representative to 
the Legislature from Exeter. He was by early as- 
sociation and education a Democrat, and early be- 
came an active and acknowledged leader; his talents 
and position as a lawyer offering him brilliant 
prospects of political life with that party. But his 
convictions of duty relative to the subject of the ex- 
tension of slavery led him into a position of antag- 
onism to the party leaders, at the time when the 
proposed annexation of Texas brought this issue 
prominently before the country, and he acted true 
to those convictions, with the prospect of political 
disaster. Writing to his old home under date of 
February 4, 1845, he says: "I am of opinion that 
it is scarcely possible to be a leading politician in 
New Hampshire, and retain respect for one's self. 
I have often been told that I stand well for high 
office, and that I may reasonably expect it. But I 
cannot measure out my opinions by caucus resolu- 
tions, manufactured by unscrupulous and unsound 
men; consequently I certify you that I shall not 



OF HON. AMOS TUCK. 7 

rise at present. " This was not only expressive of 
his loyalty to conscience and duty, but was in some 
measure the outgrowth of the sorrow he had, that in 
a certain party vote, upon which course no reproach 
was then or afterward cast, he had been overper- 
suaded to yield his convictions. It was about this 
time that the great act of Mr. Tuck's life was re- 
corded — engraved upon parchment well-nigh inde- 
structible, and in characters of living light. 

This was in January, 1845, when John P. Hale, 
then Democratic Representative in Congress from 
New Hampshire, wrote his celebrated letter, declar- 
ing that he could not vote for the annexation of 
Texas. The party was greatly excited in the 
Granite State because of this declaration. 

The following extract from a memorial discourse 
on Mr. Tuck, delivered by Rev. Geo. E. Street, at 
Exeter, N. H., Jan. 11, 1880, gives an account of 
the participation of Mr. Tuck in that political 
movement known as the Free Soil party. Refer- 
ring to the question of the annexation of Texas and 
the extension of slavery, Mr. Street says : — 

" This great issue brings us to the most signifi- 



8 LIFE AND CHARACTER 

cant chapter of Mr. Tuck's life. A full generation 
has since passed away ; and it is not easy for any, 
except the fathers among us, to understand the 
political status of that time. Let me briefly outline 
a few facts, therefore, that we may get more clearly 
the historical surroundings amid which our subject 
lived and acted. Put yourself back to the year 
1844, the last of President Tyler's administration. 
It was before the rise of a distinctively anti-slavery 
party in the country, when the southern states were 
dominant at the capital, and only here and there 
an abolitionist could be found in the North. In 
New Hampshire the leading political party for 
nearly twenty years had but echoed the wishes and 
sentiments of this ruling power in Congress. There 
had been no breaking out from that party, until one 
of its popular representatives at Washington, John 
P. Hale, boldly dissented from the proposal of Pres- 
ident Tyler, to annex Texas as a slave-holding state, 
which would increase the already overpowering 
influence of the South in the national councils. 

"Although the scheme of annexation was not pri- 
marily devised by the Democratic party, but was 



OF HON. AMOS TUCK. 9 

rather a personal one of the president, and some 
Democratic congressmen denounced it, yet Mr. 
Hale soon found that his position was not approved 
at home and that his continued opposition to the 
annexation scheme would prove his death-warrant. 
But he persisted, although a candidate for re-elec- 
tion, in the course he had taken, and was accord- 
ingly dropped from the ticket in the next conven- 
tion of his party by a unanimous vote. 

" It was this injustice to a brave man, who had 
gallantly stood by his convictions, which fired some 
of the younger men of the party, and among them 
Mr. Tuck. 

"As yet, however, they were isolated and had not 
met to confer together. Soon after the nomination 
of Mr. Hale's successor, the chairman of the State 
Central Committee and the distributor of executive 
patronage, Hon. Franklin Pierce, made a tour of 
the southern counties of the State, to bring all 
party men into accord with that act of the conven- 
tion. ' We must throw Mr. Hale overboard,' was 
his argument, 'or we shall lose favor with the 
southern men.' 



10 LIFE AND CHARACTER 

" This was the burden of his appeal to party men 
in Portsmouth ; this, when he came to Exeter, was 
the motive by which he carried his party here. 
One man stoutly refused to go with them ; it was 
the young lawyer, Amos Tuck. He insisted that 
if John P. Hale was to be expelled from his party 
on account of his opposition to slavery, he was 
ready to be expelled likewise : to which Mr. Pierce 
replied, that he had met in his travels over the 
State only one man who had talked in that way, and 
that was John L. Hayes of Portsmouth. 

" A meeting of these two men (both lawyers) 
who thus thought alike soon followed. It was at 
the session of the February term of court in this 
town in 1845, when it was agreed between them to 
call a convention of independent men in their party 
to support Mr. Hale. In the jury-room of the old 
court-house that call was written, and duplicates 
made and sent out for signers. This and the 
neighboring towns were immediately canvassed. 
Mr. N. Porter Cram, lately deceased, and his 
brother Joseph, were among the first seen and the 
first to sign. Between two and three hundred other 



OF HON. AMOS TUCK. 11 

names were added, and when the convention assem- 
bled a few days after, on Washington's Birthday, 
in this place, despite almost impassible roads, a 
most spirited meeting was held. Among others 
who came into the movement was Prof. J. G. Hoyt, 
of the academy, a man of magnetic presence and 
speech. An organization was then and there 
effected, which gathered power, through personal 
and printed appeals to the people, to make itself 
formidable enough, by the election in March, to 
defeat Mr. Hale's opponent ; and ultimately, with 
the Legislature itself, not only to replace Mr. Hale 
in Congress, but to raise him to the United States 
Senate for the long term. Why have I given this 
political incident such prominence here ? For two 
reasons ; the first is because of its historic impor- 
tance. I think in the vestry of the old First Church 
of this town, was the first crystallized opposition to 
the extension of the slaveholders' rule in the land, 
the nucleus of that great party which ten years 
afterward became national, and has made history 
so rapidly. It was fitting that here in Exeter, 
where on the 23rd of May 1775, the Colonial Leg- 



12 LIFE AND CHARACTER 

islature anticipated the Bill of Rights, which on 
the 4th of July 1776, became 'The declaration of 
thirteen states of their independence,' the key-note 
of liberty should again be sounded in advance, to 
the rest of the nation. 

" The other reason for mentioning it is because of 
the impressive picture of heroism these few men 
present to us ; abandoning party allegiance with 
certain promotion, to maintain a principle, when 
to do so was to commit political suicide; — standing 
two or three of them, by their guns, when they 
knew not if any reinforcements would come 
to their aid, trusting only in the righteousness of 
their cause, and its ultimate vindication by the 
human conscience." 

Dr. A. P. Peabody speaking of them says, " I well 
remember the utter hopelessness with which the 
great public viewed this little band of Independents 
in New Hampshire. They were thought to have 
destroyed their political future beyond all retrieve." 

Mr. Hayes writes of Mr. Tuck, " He had no 
thought of personal or political advancement ; we 
both supposed it was all over with us. He often 



OF HON. AMOS TUCK. 13 

said, ' We have a good cause and we will die making 
a brave fight.' " 

It was Mr. Tuck who gave the name to this bold 
and fearless band of " Independent Democrats," 
and it was with the aid of Mr. John L. Hayes, Mr. 
N. D. Wetmore, Mr. Robert C. Wetmore and Mr. 
George G. Fogg, that the paper known as the " In- 
dependent Democrat," first published at Manches- 
ter, and later at Concord, was established. 

In giving due prominence to the efforts of Mr. 
Tuck and his above-named associates, the influence 
of John P. Hale is not forgotten. But in his letter 
to the Democratic electors of New Hampshire 
already referred to, he had stipulated that " if they 
disagreed with his views and his course in Congress 
he should bow in submission to their decision." 
Therefore when his name was withdrawn and John 
Woodbury nominated in his stead, he felt bound by 
a high sense of honor not to take part in the early 
proceedings, and did not again until the defeat of 
Mr. Woodbury released him from his bonds. But 
he with his associates was bold, fearless and true, 
and had firm faith in the justness of their cause. 



14 LIFE AND CHARACTER 

But their reward came early. Mr. Hale, as I have 
said, was elected to the U. S. Senate in 1846, and 
Mr. Tuck to Congress in 1847.* 

It is true, that many and widely separated minds 
are simultaneously moved by the same wave of 
advancing thought and therefore it is not strange 
that different parties often claim priority as actors 
in great movements. 

That the claim here made for Mr. Tuck that he 
was the first man to begin the organization of what 
became later the Republican party is just, I take 
the liberty to make the following extract from a 

*That Mr. Hale was honest and earnest in his anti-slavery course, one 
has but to read his brief but eloquent speeches in the Senate, unprepared, 
but moving the people by their sound common-sense, and the conviction of 
his honesty of purpose, generous, yet fierce in his denunciation of slavery, 
and defiant above all its northern abettors. His deep convictions relative to 
the injustice of the institution, find best illustration in the following brief 
extract from the plea he made in the celebrated case when that noble phil- 
anthropist, Rev. Theodore Parker, was on trial for treason in the United 
States Circuit Court at Boston, before Judge Curtis and a jury. The alleged 
act of treason was complicity in the rescue of a fugitive slave named Shad- 
rach, from his master, John Debree of South Carolina. 

Mr. Hale was counsel for the defense and in adressing the Jury he said: — 
" John Debree claims he owns Shadrach ; owns what ? owns a man I 
Suppose John Debree should say he owns the moon and has an exclusive 
right in its beams ! Would a Massachusetts jury find it so ? And yet moons 
shall wax and wane no more; the earth shall crumble and decay, while the 
soul of the poor, hunted, persecuted Shadrach shall live on with the life of 
God himself." 



OF HON. AMOS TUCK. 15 

speech which he made on the occasion of a " Re- 
, union of the Freesoilers of 1848," held at Downer's 
Landing, Hingham, Mass., on August 9, 1877. Mr. 
Charles Francis Adams, who was called to preside 
at that meeting, made an address in which he 
claimed that the Free Soil party of this country 
originated in Massachusetts in 1848. Mr. Tuck in 
reference thereto said " Now, you are making up 
history here, and nobody can make up history bet- 
ter, or that is likely to last longer, than the people 
of Massachusetts ; but will you please to take ac- 
count of things that happened prior to 1848. Will 
you not bear in mind Mr. Adams, and gentlemen, 
that two years before, and more than two years 
previous to that date, people in the state of New 
Hampshire set an example of a conflict with party 
leaders that had never been set in this country 
before ? [Applause.] We organized an opposition 
to the Democratic party in 1844-45, which we 
have never given up to this day. [Renewed Ap- 
plause.] 

"And in 1845 we made a declaration of principles 
that constitued the essence of the Republican party, 



16 LIFE AND CHARACTER 

which was formed at Philadelphia eleven years later. 
I have in my pocket, gentlemen, a call which 
will prove the truth of what I say. Here is an orig- 
inal call for a convention on the 2 2d day of Feb- 
ruary, 1845, signed by two hundred and sixty-three 
Democrats, and drawn up by my friend John L. 
Hayes, now of Cambridge, and myself, in one of the 
jury-rooms in the Exeter court-house. It invited 
Democrats to assemble on the 2 2d of February, to 
take into consideration the condition of the party, 
and to make a declaration of sentiments in regard 
to the action which Mr. Hale had previously taken 
in opposition to the annexation of Texas. * 

*Prior to its admission and during the time Mr. Hale was in Congress as 
representative of the Democratic party, it appears that a portion of the 
Democracy of the Granite State were opposed to annexation. " The Nashua 
Gazette" of November 6, 1843, m speaking of annexation said : " The 

object and design throughout all is black as ink — bitter as hell We 

hope and sincerely trust there will be no truckling on the part of our northern 
representatives when this mighty project shall come up before them in all 
its questionable shapes." 

"The New Hampshire Patriot" of November 23, 1843, said : "He [the 
President] and his gang will probably attempt to throw this question into 
Congress as a fire-brand. It may produce mischief, but we trust that the 
Democrats have good sense enough to avoid being distracted by the arts of 
the enemy." 

"The Dover Gazette" in the fall of 1843, published an able article against 
annexation, and said among other things, "The admission of Texas into the 
Union would be a public disgrace, and disgrace us in the eyes of the civil- 



OF HON. AMOS TUCK. 17 

" We were soon denounced by the great organs of 
the party because we would not assent to the annexa- 
tion of Texas for the reason given by Mr. Calhoun, 
or for any reasons whatever. We organized it as a 
movement of Democrats. Previous to that time 
many men had remonstrated at different times 
against the action of the Democratic party in New 
Hampshire, which was the strongest Democratic 
state in the Union, but when they were denounced 
by the party leaders, and either passed over to the 
Abolitionists or Whig party, they acquiesced in 
being thus ranked. 

" On the other hand, we insisted on organizing as 
Democrats. We refused to leave the Democratic 
party on account of our declaration of sentiments ; 
we claimed that anti-slavery was true Democracy. 
We refused to leave the party, and we have re- 
fused to leave to this day, until we have got a major- 
ity of the democracy of New Hampshire on the 
Republican side. [Applause.] Well, gentlemen, I 

ized world. It would carry against us the moral influence of all Christen- 
dom, and draw upon us the just retribution of an offended God." 

I make these quotations to show that Mr. Hale acted in harmony with the 
previously expressed wishes of many of his constituents, although he was 
abandoned by them soon after. 



18 LIFE AND CHARACTER 

wish you to correct the history you are making. You 
have no right, permit me to say, to write on the 
page of history that the Republican enterprise in 
this country began in 1848. Previous to 1848, I 
have told you how we organized the opposition in 
New Hampshire in 1845. We began in 1844. In 
1846, at the March election, the Independent Dem- 
ocrats held the balance of power between the Whig 
and Democratic parties in New Hampshire. 

" No election of Governor by the people having 
taken place when the Legislature assembled in 
June of that year, we said to the Whigs, " We will 
put your man, Anthony Colby, into office as Gov- 
ernor of the State, if you will elect John P. Hale to 
the U. S. Senate." [Applause.] They said they would. 
This was in 1846. There was a vacancy in the 
House of Representatives and they concluded after 
Mr. Hale had been put in the Senate, to nominate 
myself for the House of Representatives, and after 
several ineffectual efforts I was elected to Congress 
in 1847, one year before the Buffalo Convention. 
You had at that time elected John G. Palfrey, as a 
regular Whig, to the House of Representatives, and 



OF HON. AMOS TUCK. L9 

the Whigs of New Hampshire came in to the sup- 
port of myself, simply because of my statement to 
Ichabod Bartlett, the president of the Convention, 
who was sent to consult with me, that I should ex- 
pect, if elected, to be found voting with such men 
as Joshua R. Giddings, and John G. Palfrey. 
[Applause.] I voted with them ; but at the next 
electing the Whigs of Massachusetts would not 
re-elect Mr. Palfrey. Please to put that down on 
record. [Laughter.] And in the revolution that took 
place in the United States, bear in mind that the 
humble state of New Hampshire placed the first 
anti-slavery senator in the Senate of the United 
States. 

"Joshua R. Gidding elected as a Whig, John G. 
Palfrey elected as a Whig, and your humble ser- 
vant elected as an Independent Democrat, were 
the anti-slavery members of the House, who took 
their seats in the thirtieth Congress, which assem- 
bled in December, 1847. 

" You formed your independent organization in 
Massachusetts in 1848. But when we organized 
in 1845, when we elected an anti-slavery man to the 



20 LIFE AND CHARACTER 

Senate in 1846, when we sent an anti-slavery man 
to the House in 1847, Charles Francis Adams, 
Charles Allen, Charles Sumner and Henry Wilson 
stood well in the Whig party. But the Cotton 
Whigs rejected Dr. Palfrey, adopted General Tay- 
lor, and you rejected the Cotton Whigs. It was 
not until the next year that you pronounced the 
Whig party dissolved. We claim that we helped 
convert you. [Laughter and applause.] Please to 
put that down in the history that you are making, 
because, while we cannot claim much in our little 
state, we are very jealous of the little we can claim. 
I say that here are the declarations carefully made at 
the Exeter meeting, where we published an address 
and resolutions, and we had no occasion up to the 
time of the formation of the Republican party, and in 
all our labors in the Republican party, and in all 
our votes in Congress or out, to cross a / or dot an 
/of what we wrote in February, 1845. And there 
is the document !* Your patent was not taken out 
until 1848." [Laughter and applause.] 

Mr. Tuck was re-elected twice, holding the posi- 
tion of member of the House of Representatives 

* The document is reproduced as an appendix to this sketch. 



OF HON. AMOS TUCK. 21 

six years. He took high rank in Congress, was 
emphatically a business man and a great organizer 
and won many friends. "As a speaker," says a 
friend, " his only defect was a want of resonance of 
voice. " His matter was admirable. He wrote with 
great readiness, and good taste, and had much sa- 
tirical power. One of his most important speeches 
was in favor of reciprocal free trade with Canada. 

It is claimed, on good authority, that as early as 
1853, Mr. Tuck made an effort to consolidate all 
those who were thinking alike under different party 
names, into one party, and standing as he con- 
tended, with the early fathers, Jefferson and Madi- 
son, he proposed at that time the name Republican, 
which was adopted in National Convention in 1856. 

Dr. D. H. Batchelder then of Londonderry, N. 

H. says, " During the month of September, 1853, 

I received a note from Mr. Tuck of which I append 

a copy." 

Exeter, Sept. 28, 18153. 
My Dear Sir: 

We deem it advisable to hold an informal 

meeting composed of some of the principal members of the 

parties at this place on the 12th of October (Wednesday), 

at Major Blake's Hotel. One of the principal objects of this 



22 LIFE AND CHARACTER 

informal meeting is to fix on a plan of harmonizing the different 
party organizations, whereby a more united co-orporation can be 
secured, and the four parties may pull together under one title 
of organization. Hale, McFarland and Fogg will be present. 
We shall expect you and Currier, of Auburn, to be present. 

Yours respectfully, 

Amos Tuck. 

It was at this meeting, according to the state- 
ment of Dr. Batchelder, composed of only fourteen 
persons, thirteen of whom have passed from earth, a 
meeting of which no record was made, and no re- 
porter present, that Mr. Tuck proposed the name 
of " Republican " to be adopted by all who had acted 
in accord. A writer in the New York Tribune of 
August 8, 1884* says, " Horace Greeley named the 
party in a letter to myself in 1854, sometime in the 
month of April." But Dr. Batchelder says that in 
a conversation with Horace Greeley in December 
of 1853, when Mr. Greeley made his annual visit to 
his old home at Londonderry, he related to Mr. 
Greeley confidentially what had taken place in 
Exeter in October 1853, and the name which Mr. 
Tuck had suggested. Mr. Greeley replied, "I think 
it will be necessary to adopt some general name, and 

*A. N. Cole. 



OF HON. AMOS TUCK. 23 

I think, Republican, would be the best name ; it 
will sound both Jefferson ian and Madisonian, and for 
that reason will take well. " Therefore the honor 
of giving a name to the great Republican party is 
claimed for Amos Tuck. 

He was a member of the convention at Phila- 
delphia in 1856, which put in nomination General 
Fremont for the President, and served on the com- 
mittee which reported its platform, and in i860 was 
elected to the Chicago convention where he advo- 
cated from the first the nomination of Abraham 
Lincoln. Here also he was a member of the Plat- 
form Committee, and aided in the formation of the 
declaration of principles on which the great party 
rallied and were victorious in the ensuing election. 
The nomination of Mr. Lincoln was to Mr. Tuck a 
matter of great satisfaction, for during his service 
in Congress, a warm personal friendship was estab- 
lished between them which lasted during the life of 
Lincoln. He was also a delegate to, and took an 
active part in, the Peace Convention of 1861, to 
which he was appointed with Judge Fowler and 
Hon. Levi Chamberlain to meet delegates from other 



24 LIFE AND CHARACTER 

states in the vain attempt of an amicable settlement 
of difficulties, and hope of preventing hostilities. 

Mr. Lincoln recognized the friendship of former 
years by appointing, very soon after his inaugura- 
tion, Mr. Tuck as Naval Officer of the port of 
Boston, which position he held during the war, re- 
ceiving a re-appointment by Mr. Lincoln, and a 
removal at the hands of Andrew Johnson, in the 
latter part of 1865. Subsequently he was appointed 
to the office of Land Commissioner of the Atlantic 
and Pacific Railroad in Missouri, which caused 
him to make his home at St. Louis for a number 
of years. 

In his profession he was very successful, a con- 
scientious, upright, bold and fearless advocate, and 
a wise and discreet counselor. With him was as- 
sociated for about ten years, from 1847, Hon. Wm. 
W. Stickney, of Exeter, and their business was laro- e 
and lucrative. Later, his son-in-law, Mr. Francis 
O. French, was connected with him in professional 
practice. Mr. Tuck traveled quite extensively 
abroad, having visited Europe several times. In 
1872 he accompanied his son Edward Tuck, a 



OF HON. AMOS TUCK. 25 

Dartmouth graduate of 1862, and a member of the 
banking-house of John Munroe & Co., of New York 
City, to Paris, to be present at his son's marriage to 
Miss Julia Stell. 

After his return Mr. Tuck was for sometime as- 
sociated with the Hon. Austin Corbin, of New York, 
also a son of New Hampshire, very prominent in 
banking and railroad circles, and was engaged with 
him in railroad construction on Long Island. 

Mr. Tuck was a man of fine personal presence ; 
of pleasing address ; perceptions keen, with purity 
of character, soundness of judgment; enterprising, 
sagacious and successful. He accumulated a large 
property, and during the later years of his life with- 
drew in a great measure from professional and 
business affairs. 

Yet it was not in the halls of Congress, not in fo- 
rensic debate, not as an acknowledged leader of men, 
not as an organizer of campaigns, not as an advo- 
cate at the bar, nor manager of business enterprises, 
that Mr. Tuck was at his best. It was in the purity, 
steadfastness and generosity of his friendships, and 
the sweetness of his home life. To him the needy 



26 LIFE AND CHARACTER 

never appealed in vain ; he gave of his means most 
liberally for all purposes that tendered to the eleva- 
tion of humanity, — schools, churches, missions, tem- 
perance, and all moral reforms. 

To him the subject of education was ever near 
and dear. He served as Trustee of Dartmouth 
College ten years, of Phillips Exeter Academy, 
nearly thirty years, and was much interested, and 
took an active part, in the organization of Robinson 
Female Seminary, being President of the Board of 
Trustees for several years. 

Mr. Tuck was twice married. First, to Sarah A., 
daughter of David Nudd, Esq., of Hampton. By 
this marriage he had eight children, three of whom 
survive — Mrs. Abby T. Frye, Mrs. Ellen T. 
French, and Edward Tuck, of New York City, a 
retired banker. Second, to Catherine P. Shepard, 
of Salisbury, N. H. 

His love and tenderness toward his family were 
unbounded, and no father enjoyed more highly his 
children's society or cared more lovingly for them 
than did Mr. Tuck. After the death of his first wife 
he placed the youngest, a babe of a few months, in 



OF HON. AMOS TUCK. 27 

the family of an esteemed friend and political co- 
worker, Mr. Samuel Wiggin, who resided in Mr. 
Tuck's native town, Parsonsfield. In this family 
the little one received most affectionate care. His 
letters, many of which are before me, show him to 
be possessed of a " woman's heart. " The little 
one was an invalid and required much attention. 
Although at a time the busiest of his busy life, yet 
his anxiety for the little one found expression often, 
and most lovingly and tenderly. 

Under date of December 28, 1847, Washington, 
D. C, he writes his dear friend Wiggin : " Indeed 
I cannot forget you, when you have in your family 
my dear little motherless babe. I feel very badly 
about my separation from him so long, but try and 
comfort -myself with the assurance that he is in hu- 
mane, kind and patient hands. Brother John has 
written me about your kind regard and tender love 
for the little fellow. I thank you from the very bottom 
of my heart, and beg of you to continue to regard 
him as a tender, dependent babe. " 

Later he closes another letter by saying, " With 
great anxiety, and commending him to God and 



28 LIFE AND CHARACTER 

your tenderness I remain," etc. A week later in 
another letter he writes, " You were very kind to 
assure me of your doing everything possible for my 
dear little boy. For though I did not doubt your kind- 
ness before, it seemed a relief to be assured of it 
again and again." Later on he writes, " Continue 
to do for him what you can. I will make all the 
compensation which can be made by money, and 
remember it while I live with gratitude. I doubt 
not God also will bless you and your children for 
the full measure of kindness which you deal out to 
this boy. I have no suggestions to make, having 
full confidence in you and in Dr. Sweat, that you 
will do better than I can tell you. I am deeply 
thankful to every one who has even looked on him 
with a blessing, much more to all of you for your 
kind acts. Tears of gratitude fill my eyes while I 
write. May God bless the means for the recovery 
of the child." 

But the "dear little Amos Otis" passed from 
earth, yet the gratitude of the father to those who 
had so tenderly and lovingly cared for the babe did 
not cease with the lapse of time. 



OF RON. AMOS TUCK. 29 

Under date of January, 1849, he wrote Mr. 
Wiggin, " I can assure you that a remembrance of 
all you did for my dear little Amos Otis is too fresh 
in my reccollections to allow me to forget you. . . . 
I am passing my time here as comfortably as could 

be expected separated from my family My 

friends in New Hampshire have nominated me for 
re-election. Should I come here again I shall take 
my family with me. Life is too short, and my 
children are at too important an age to dispense 
with my presence with them for so long a time as 
another session of Congress 

" It will give me pleasure to hear from you, as I 
most sincerely wish happiness to each and every 
member of your family. I shall rejoice to hear 
of your prosperity and shall mourn over your 
adversity." 

These extracts evidence his parental ten- 
derness and his high appreciation of home and 
friends. Mr. Wiggin died a few years later, 
but Mr. Tuck never came to the home of his 
nativity without visiting this family, and by word 
and act re-assuring them each and all of his 



30 LIFE AND CHARACTER 

deep sense of gratitude for their loving kindness 
toward his darling son. 

In his genuine kindness and liberal generosity 
he was one of the best living attestations to the cor- 
rectness of that old proverb, " The liberal soul shall 
be made fat ; and he that watereth shall be watered 
also himself." 

A gentleman of Parsonsfield who had business 
relations with Mr. Tuck, a man of culture, but a 
political opponent, says of him : " I have met and 
had acquaintance with many men who have held 
high positions in life, but when I formed the ac- 
quaintance of Amos Tuck I found him to be a most 
wonderful man." 

" He impressed me as no other man ever did ; can- 
did, honest, uncontaminated by contact with evil, 
with a high and noble purpose, magnanimous, kind, 
generous and deferential, but firm to his convictions 
of duty as ' the eternal hills.' He was in every 
sense a gentleman. I never expect to meet his 
equal. " 

Such is the testimony of those who knew him 
best. This noble life, devoted to the best interests 



OF RON. AMOS TUCK. 31 

of humanity in the broadest sense, was suddenly and 
unexpectedly terminated by apoplexy at his home 
in Exeter, on the eve of the nth of December, 
1879. 

And the end crowned this life-work. He had 
returned from a sojourn with his children in New 
York ; in Boston had talked over the battles of 
1845 with a fellow-soldier in that crusade; had 
exchanged salutations with his neighbors in his 
beloved Exeter ; then the summons came, and he 
laid him down for the last in his own home ; bliss- 
fully unconscious of the tearful circle that gathered 
about him while he yet breathed, he only became 
conscious in eternal bliss. His remains lie in the 
pleasant valley, surrounded by his family, his neigh- 
bors, and his friends, close to the acres he had lov- 
ingly cultivated, within sound of the Phillips Acad- 
emy bell, near to the scenes of his domestic and 
professional successes, not far from that humble 
room in the Court House where a great thought 
was born and became clothed in flesh with the 
magnificent lineaments of a national party. 

Friend of the human race rest in peace ! 



APPENDIX. 




DEMOCRATIC MASS MEETING 

GALL. 



To the Democratic citizens of Ex- 
eter and the neighboring tonus, and all attending the Court of 
Common Pleas DSB in session :— 

The undersigued members of the Democratic party, believimr 
that ttc course of our representation in Congress, the Hon. John 
F. Hale, is approved by the people of Sfew Hampshire, and is 
onibcl^- " 1 ^ 6 C °" bcconsistantl r aaMca <e'llV UicJrieiuls 

Believing that the present scheme of annexation, is In viola. 
Hon ol the fundamental principles of democracy, the doctrine of 
State rights, strict construction ol the Constitution and regard 
tor equal rights, and wishing: to raise oar voices against a scheme 
(UiiclLu-iIl tend to extend and perpetuate slavery, and to retaken 
the influence ot free 1-epresentatiou.in Congress" i 

Believing also, that the late Contention at Concern, has Dal - 
the parly in a position which Ihev do not wish to occupy t = 

Bespc. •tfiilly request a!! n iio would maintain tlie fundamental 
principles olthc democratic faith, to assemble at the VFvntv 
of the FIRST CKtRCHinEXETER, on SiTCRDAT tfi» 
aSddnyolFEniUAStY^rWnt, at 10 o'clock. ?J "tv. M 
make a lull declaration of their sentiments, and take into con* 
Sidcration the present position of oar party. 



X^A SmJ 



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' MinliaU. BurWa. Towk, 









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\> vi\ 



This meeting, on February 22, 1845, was fully 
attended. A series of resolutions was presented 
and adopted, asserting the principles of human 
equality and universal justice to be the basis of the 
Democratic faith; that the advocacy of slavery was 
wholly inconsistent therewith, denouncing it as an 
institution disgracing " our Republic in the eyes of 
the whole civilized world ; " supporting the course 
persued by Hon. John P. Hale, in Congress, 
declaring "that the nomination of another candi- 
date for Congress at this period is wholly uncalled 
for by the people," etc., and following said resolu- 
tions with a long address to the Democrats of 
New Hampshire. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




